The Hindu : Karnataka News : Railways agrees to realign Hubli-Ankola line

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 08, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Railways agrees to realign Hubli-Ankola line

Special Correspondent

The new alignment of the line may push up the project cost, but will save priceless forests of Uttara Kannada district.

HUBLI: The Forest Department has suggested that there should be a realignment of the Hubli-Ankola railway line to minimise the loss of forest area.

The suggestion was reportedly made at a recent meeting of the departments concerned and the South-Western Railway convened by Vinay Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Government, Department of Infrastructure. It is learnt that the South-Western Railway has agreed to the proposal.

The suggestion of the Forest Department has come in the wake of railways scaling down its requirement of forestland for the new line from 965 hectares to 720 hectares.

This had been conveyed to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and that of the State Government in the last week of March.

The Forest Department officials have noted that the alignment of the new line results in the vivisection of the forests area in Yellapur and Karwar forest divisions, which does not augur well for the new line and for the future of forests in Uttara Kannada district, which is under tremendous pressure to release forestland for development purposes. The adherence to the present alignment will result in man-animal conflict.

It has been suggested that the alignment of the line should run parallel to the national highway between Hubli and Ankola. Although this will push up the cost of the project in view of the need to build more tunnels, it is worth doing so as the homogeneity of forests in the Uttara Kannada district will be preserved.

The Forest Departmental officials say there clearance can be given if the revised proposal is received early. It would have been appropriate if the existing railway line between Londa and Vascodagama is doubled.

But the Forest Department has taken note of the fact that the Hubli-Ankola line is crucial to the development of the region and of the alternatives available for the railways to meet the transport needs of iron ore mining companies from Hospet-Bellary area, the Hubli-Ankola line appears to be the best option.

The railways had estimated that it may need 964.97 hectares of forestland running through the Forest Divisions of Dharwad (55.62 hectares), Yellapur (528.31 hectares) and Karwar (381.04 hectares).

The requirement was later scaled down to 45.50 hectares in Dharwad division, 390 hectares in Yellapur and 284.50 hectares in Karwar forest divisions, to arrive at a total requirement of 720 hectares.

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